Only about half of the nation’s organic operations participate in the USDA’s organic certification cost-share program. Since the program was created in the 2002 Farm Bill, approximately $60 million has been allocated to it.

I submitted a FOIA request to the agency on March 10, asking for financial documents that would substantiate the allegations of frivolous spending. On April 20, the agency responded that no such document exists.

RECENT STORIES

The FDA is refusing to say which companies received recalled shipments of Egyptian strawberries contaminated with Hepatitis B last year — an act the agency defends as protecting companies’ trade secrets.

Some government agencies just hate releasing their records. The FBI and the USDA recently have proved they’ll do just about anything to skirt transparent recordkeeping, and I’d like to add the Federal Aviation Administration to that list.

Let’s hear a round of applause for the journalists and advocates who rushed to the rescue when the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service pulled inspection and enforcement data from its website last week

The U.S. government has been pushing hard recently for requesters to file FOIAs through its own centralized portal, known as FOIAonline, instead of sending requests from personal or work email accounts.